


Footsteps

by FireEye



Category: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-03
Updated: 2011-12-03
Packaged: 2017-10-26 19:37:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/287102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireEye/pseuds/FireEye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One moment in the life of Jane Proudfoot, pre-military.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Footsteps

**Author's Note:**

  * For [crankyoldman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crankyoldman/gifts).



> Prompt: Oh god, anything about Jane's backstory. Why she's in the military. Has she lost a lot of family? What makes Jane tick?

Jane was fifteen, going on thirty.

The packet he’d had put together claimed she was eighteen.  It was no mean feat, patching together a woman who didn’t exist out of the truths of a girl who did.  But the Academy wouldn’t take a minor without parental consent, and he didn’t have any other options right now, least of all considering the Academy was where Jane _wanted_ to be.

If it didn’t work... All he knew was that she couldn’t stay with him in the barracks; she wouldn’t go home.  At best, she would vanish in the middle of the night, as though she’d never appeared on his doorstep.

As it was, Jacob watched her doing a set of pushups.  She was certainly tough, and he couldn’t fault her determination.  The Academy didn’t give up on people easily.  She’d pull through; and if she didn’t, they’d pull her through.

... _probably_.

The lieutenant cricked his neck, and his gaze fell on the battered Academy handbook sitting on his desk.  “Did you do any reading like I told you?”

Jane paused, glancing his way for the first time since he’d gotten home, and wheezed, “I’m getting there.”

“Yeah, well... _get_ there, Junior.”  He crouched beside her, waving the book in front of her face.  “Strength is good, but muscles alone aren’t going to get you anywhere – there’s always going to be someone faster or stronger.”  He gave her a tap to the skull; poised as she was, all she could do was glare.  “Remember, you have to prove you have a brain in there somewhere, too.” 

He dropped the book in front of her.  She fell out of her set and rolled over, breathing hard to catch her breath, and he stepped over her to get back to his desk.  As he sat down, waiting for his messages to load, she shoved the book aside and slipped her knees under his cot, starting a set of situps. 

Jacob smirked before turning his attention to his beeping terminal.  Near the bottom of the list, an official message from the Houston Military Academy blinked for his attention.  Abruptly, the weight of what he was doing settled on his shoulders.  “Dad is gonna kill me.”

“Dad isn’t gonna care,” Jane shot back.  “Dad hates me, remember?”

“He doesn’t hate you,” Jacob rolled his eyes.  He didn’t bother to point out that, if their father hated her, he wouldn’t have named her after himself.  “You wanna know what the recruiters have to say or what?”

Judging by the sound of it, Jane turned over his bed in an attempt to scramble faster than humanly possibly to his side.  Jacob glanced up as she leaned heavily on his shoulder, eyes fixed on the screen.  He had to smile at her enthusiasm, even if she _was_ leaving a sweaty handprint on his formerly crisp uniform.  When he didn’t move to open the message himself, she reached over him to drag the holographic letter open.  Her eyes widened as she read it, lips moving silently.

The squeal of girlish delight – right by his ear, no less – nearly deafened him, and his sister nearly choked him in a bearhug.

“Congratulations.”  Chuckling, Jacob reached up to give her an encouraging pat on the shoulder.  “Trust me, you’re plenty strong enough.  Now go read the damn book already.”

**Author's Note:**

> Official info on Jane's backstory: her father was a general, her family moved around a lot, she grew up as the only girl among brothers, and she entered the HMA at the age of 16. Everything else is in here is personal fanon that's been brewing for the past decade. :)


End file.
